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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

G&T Zags follow blog: St. Joe’s knows, it’s tough staying in NCAA mix

Phil Martelli’s team that played in the Kennel on Wednesday was not up to past standards. (Jesse Tinsley)

The morning after every Gonzaga men’s basketball game, beat writer Jim Meehan shares his thoughts on the game and more insight from the coaches and players. What follows is a sampling of his blog post from the St. Joseph’s game. Find more from Meehan at spokesman.com/sportslink.

 The Gonzaga-Saint Joseph’s series has been brief but entertaining. Each of the five games – the last Gonzaga’s 70-65 overtime win in the 2008 season – were close affairs decided by eight points or less.

Until last night.

GU led 8-0 with the game not even 3 minutes old. The Zags earned their most lopsided win at the MAC and handed the Hawks their worst loss in program history. Saint Joseph’s was an NCAA tournament team last year, but suffered heavy losses to graduation. Still, the Hawks were picked eighth in the 14-team Atlantic 10, a solid conference.

SJU was a national power in the first half of the 2000s, rising to No. 1 in the polls and landing a No. 1 seed. The Hawks made it to the Elite Eight in ’04. They’ve had winning seasons, with exceptions in 2010 and 2011, but they’ve only been to two NCAA tourneys since that 30-2 team in 2004.

A reminder of how hard it is to get there, and to stay there.

I covered that ’08 game. GU led by 17 in the first half but trailed by six with 3:37 left. It looked like they were done. Then Jeremy Pargo fed David Pendergraft for a layup and Matt Bouldin had a clutch three-point play. Austin Daye scored four points in overtime as GU snagged an impressive road win.

Quotebook

Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli on GU’s potential:

“I don’t have any idea. I’ll say this, for whatever the date is today. I should know the date, tomorrow’s my 38th wedding anniversary. This is a hell of a gift. If they’re (ranked) 13, and there’s 12 teams better than them, I ain’t buying that.”

More Martelli:

“The window to your soul is your eyes, and we had guys whose eyes were very cloudy.”